Semirara Mining suffers slight drop in profit

MANILA, Philippines - Consunji-owned Semirara Mining Corp. posted a slight drop in consolidated net income to P3.58 billion in the first half from P3.63 billion in the same period last year.

Semirara said the decline in earnings was due to lower  income from its coal  operations.  The net contribution to the bottom line by the coal segment and the power segment are P425.84 million and P3.16 billion, respectively.

“The one percent decline mainly came from the coal segment whose net earnings dropped by 63 percent, before elimination, due to 10 percent decline in volume sold and 23-percent decline in average coal price year-on-year,” it said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

The drop in coal earnings was, however, offset by the 170-percent hike in earnings from power.

The coal segment reported a 20- percent decrease in production during the period as a result of the temporary suspension of coal mining operations after the Panian West wall incident in first quarter this year.

Meanwhile, the significant improvement in the earnings of the power segment was mainly driven by the higher availability of the plant and higher average load capacity at 77-percent and 103-percent improvement, respectively, as both units were already operating after the plants’ rehabilitation.

On the other hand, the company said its board approved the allotment of P1.6 billion from its unappropriated retained earnings to cover capital expenditures and investments for power plant expansion.

Semirara is the only large-scale coal producer in the Philippines and is engaged in surface open-cut mining of thermal coal from its Panian mine on Semirara Island in  Antique province. Semirara Island covers an area of 55 square kilometers.